Friday, March 16, 2012

Totoro

Totoro is in a Japanese movie called My Neighbor Totoro. My Neighbor Totoro is about a family moving to Japan to be closer to their mother in the hospital who is recovering from an illness. Upon arrival, sisters Satsuki (pronounced saht- ski) and Mei (pronounced May) explore the outside of the house and sprint across the yard.

One morning, Mei notices two rabbit ears in the grass. Mei follows her three-year-old instincts and chases after them. The pair of white rabbit ears advances quickly under the house to try to lose Mei. Mei discovers where the ears went and chases after them into a small opening in a bush. She is led through a series of tunnels to a large camphor tree. She watches the white creature jump into the opening in the tree and follows.Once Mei is inside the tree, she lands on top of a larger version of the white creature she followed earlier. She asks what his name is and interprets his roars as "Totoro".

One rainy night, Mei and Satsuki are waiting for their father to come home from work at the bus stop. Satsuki is carrying two umbrellas with Mei sleeping on her back. Satsuki carefully places an open umbrella on top of Mei. When Satsuki glances at the ground, she sees a pair of furry feet. When she looks up at the creature, she realizes this is the "Totoro" Mei has told her about. Satsuki hands Totoro an open umbrella and Totoro covers his head with it enjoying the sound of the rain on his umbrella. Moments later, a "cat bus" (a moving bus that looks like a cat) appears and Totoro hands Satsuki a bag of acorns and steps in the cat bus. A few minutes later, their father arrives.

That night, Satsuki and Mei plant the seeds in the garden. While they are asleep, Totoro and the two other white creatures do upwards motions with their hands to make the seeds sprout. Satsuki and Mei wake up during the dance and join in. The seeds quickly turn into tall trees. When they awoke the next morning, the seeds were not trees , however the seeds had started to sprout.

The girls learn that their visit to see their mother was postponed because she was getting worse instead of better. Satsuki takes in the news very hard. Instead of being upset, Satsuki yells at Mei for not understanding what was happening to their mother. Mei decided to head off the the hospital (about 4 miles by foot) with an ear of corn because she believes the corn will make her feel well again.

Mei's disappearance prompts Satsuki and her neighbors to search for Mei. Satsuki was unable to find Mei, so she dashed to the Camphor tree to ask Totoro for help. Once Satsuki explains Mei's disappearance, Totoro calls for his cat bus and the cat bus leads Satsuki straight to Mei with her ear of corn.